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<blockquote data-quote="Tolamaker" data-source="post: 9073321" data-attributes="member: 7031495"><p><strong>Session 62: In Over Their Heads?</strong></p><p></p><p>Corban breaks the tie over Thorkrid, and decides to leave him where he is, tied up. "We can always let him go or kill him later." The party pushes down the hall, and while inspecting the door, discovers a secret door in the wall. Mishka manages to wrench it open, and the party finds themselves in a passageway that has peepholes looking into some private quarters. Mishka muses that this might have been a way for Coaltongue to get information on visitors. Two of the quarters contain a Dark Pyre soldier. The party leaves the passageway and continue into a hallway with multiple doors. Corban and Gruz each take a door, and open them at the same time. Gruz's door is locked, though he hears horrific screams on the other side. Corban's door opens to a room with two pools. A zombie looks to them, begins to rush them alongside several swarms of hellwasps.</p><p></p><p>The party manages to fight off the wasps, though Gruz is paralyzed and almost infested with them. Once they've cleared the pool room, they go off to the side where there is a sauna. A hellish wasp nest dripping with honey rests in the center, and Eluriah is so horrified, she burns it all to the ground.</p><p></p><p>Gruz tells everyone what he heard in the other room, and they get Aripos to pick the lock. They burst in, and let loose on a strange morass of faces and screams. Mishka feels the thing try to suck her soul into its, but manages to resist. Terrified of what it's capable of, Gruz lands a <em>banishing smite</em> on the creature, sending it screaming back to its home plane.</p><p></p><p>Inside the room, they discover that they are on a platform that can raise up to the top of a shaft above them. At the top, there is a strange shimmer, which Corban says matches descriptions of the Astral Plane. Gruz goes up to investigate on his flying broom, and is immediately hit by a <em>hold person</em> spell. Once it wears off, he comes back dow, but Eluriah is still curious. She goes up and resists the <em>hold person</em>. Higher up, she is hit by a fireball. Pushing ever higher, she finally turns back when spiked metal balls bludgeon her from the walls.</p><p></p><p>The party debates what to do, whether to turn back and rest, or to forge ahead into other rooms. Corban wants to try one more thing, however. Taking Gruz's broom, he <em>dimension doors</em> his way to the shimmer. He sticks his sword across the shimmer to test it, and it returns unharmed. As he debates going through, and while the others watch him above, none of them are aware of the Dark Pyre patrol which has come to investigate the explosion...</p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Post Session Thoughts</strong></p><p>This was a slow one, and then all of a sudden a quick one. The hellwasp fight took forever, partially because I run swarms has taking half damage from all single-target attacks, rather than just the normal piercing/slashing/bludgeoning. Everyone was suitably grossed out as I described the hellwasps beginning to climb into Gruz's mouth and nose to infest him. There was a moment where they debated teleporting him to burn the hellwasps with the Burning Sky, which is so cool I wish they hadn't managed to finish off the swarm before it got in him. The fight with the feaster of flesh and souls was quick, but still fun. I could tell he was going to be taken out pretty quickly (with not a single miss against his 20 AC) so I let him soul suck as a legendary action, just to give them a taste. I always have this urge to let a monster do all of it's cool actions, sometimes to the detriment of a fight, so I found this a nice middle ground instead of padding his HP.</p><p></p><p>The debate and exploration of the lift shaft was hilarious and frustrating. I know I'm the DM, I know I know everything that is coming, but it still always surprises me when players willingly hurt themselves just to get a little information. My players are also trying to kill me by using their potions <em>before</em> they take use up hit dice, but I gave up explaining resource management years ago. I very much look forward to next session as they are both split and ambushed.</p><p></p><p><strong>Changes to the Module</strong></p><p>Any and all changes are either due to forgetfulness, or interpreting how the lift shaft would would if someone just flew up. I forgot the hellwasps were supposed to be an ambush, but I don't think that changed much. I decided that the traps weren't dependent on the lift's location, just deactivated if the lift and mechanisms were in the right place. Though I did forget that fire elementals are supposed to be summoned at the third level after the fireball. We'll treat that as a nice surprise if they ever bother to mess with the mechanism while the water is flowing. I also decided to simplify it and not have the traps go off while descending.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tolamaker, post: 9073321, member: 7031495"] [B]Session 62: In Over Their Heads?[/B] Corban breaks the tie over Thorkrid, and decides to leave him where he is, tied up. "We can always let him go or kill him later." The party pushes down the hall, and while inspecting the door, discovers a secret door in the wall. Mishka manages to wrench it open, and the party finds themselves in a passageway that has peepholes looking into some private quarters. Mishka muses that this might have been a way for Coaltongue to get information on visitors. Two of the quarters contain a Dark Pyre soldier. The party leaves the passageway and continue into a hallway with multiple doors. Corban and Gruz each take a door, and open them at the same time. Gruz's door is locked, though he hears horrific screams on the other side. Corban's door opens to a room with two pools. A zombie looks to them, begins to rush them alongside several swarms of hellwasps. The party manages to fight off the wasps, though Gruz is paralyzed and almost infested with them. Once they've cleared the pool room, they go off to the side where there is a sauna. A hellish wasp nest dripping with honey rests in the center, and Eluriah is so horrified, she burns it all to the ground. Gruz tells everyone what he heard in the other room, and they get Aripos to pick the lock. They burst in, and let loose on a strange morass of faces and screams. Mishka feels the thing try to suck her soul into its, but manages to resist. Terrified of what it's capable of, Gruz lands a [I]banishing smite[/I] on the creature, sending it screaming back to its home plane. Inside the room, they discover that they are on a platform that can raise up to the top of a shaft above them. At the top, there is a strange shimmer, which Corban says matches descriptions of the Astral Plane. Gruz goes up to investigate on his flying broom, and is immediately hit by a [I]hold person[/I] spell. Once it wears off, he comes back dow, but Eluriah is still curious. She goes up and resists the [I]hold person[/I]. Higher up, she is hit by a fireball. Pushing ever higher, she finally turns back when spiked metal balls bludgeon her from the walls. The party debates what to do, whether to turn back and rest, or to forge ahead into other rooms. Corban wants to try one more thing, however. Taking Gruz's broom, he [I]dimension doors[/I] his way to the shimmer. He sticks his sword across the shimmer to test it, and it returns unharmed. As he debates going through, and while the others watch him above, none of them are aware of the Dark Pyre patrol which has come to investigate the explosion... [B] Post Session Thoughts[/B] This was a slow one, and then all of a sudden a quick one. The hellwasp fight took forever, partially because I run swarms has taking half damage from all single-target attacks, rather than just the normal piercing/slashing/bludgeoning. Everyone was suitably grossed out as I described the hellwasps beginning to climb into Gruz's mouth and nose to infest him. There was a moment where they debated teleporting him to burn the hellwasps with the Burning Sky, which is so cool I wish they hadn't managed to finish off the swarm before it got in him. The fight with the feaster of flesh and souls was quick, but still fun. I could tell he was going to be taken out pretty quickly (with not a single miss against his 20 AC) so I let him soul suck as a legendary action, just to give them a taste. I always have this urge to let a monster do all of it's cool actions, sometimes to the detriment of a fight, so I found this a nice middle ground instead of padding his HP. The debate and exploration of the lift shaft was hilarious and frustrating. I know I'm the DM, I know I know everything that is coming, but it still always surprises me when players willingly hurt themselves just to get a little information. My players are also trying to kill me by using their potions [I]before[/I] they take use up hit dice, but I gave up explaining resource management years ago. I very much look forward to next session as they are both split and ambushed. [B]Changes to the Module[/B] Any and all changes are either due to forgetfulness, or interpreting how the lift shaft would would if someone just flew up. I forgot the hellwasps were supposed to be an ambush, but I don't think that changed much. I decided that the traps weren't dependent on the lift's location, just deactivated if the lift and mechanisms were in the right place. Though I did forget that fire elementals are supposed to be summoned at the third level after the fireball. We'll treat that as a nice surprise if they ever bother to mess with the mechanism while the water is flowing. I also decided to simplify it and not have the traps go off while descending. [/QUOTE]
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